The most interesting and controversial draft choice the Blazers have ever made?

Even the Sam Bowie selection wasn't questioned AT THE TIME like this one

Photo by Martina Picciau on Unsplash

The Trail Blazers passed on arguably the greatest player of all time, Michael Jordan, to pick Sam Bowie in the 1984 draft. And actually could have also selected Charles Barkley or John Stockton. But at the time, it wasn’t generally expected that Jordan or Barkley or Stockton would have the Hall of Fame careers they had.

The Portland choice was not as controversial at the time as you might expect. Center was the prime position in those days and the Blazers needed one. But as the years went by, it came to look worse and worse.

LaRue Martin was chosen No. 1 by Portland in 1972 out of Loyola Chicago and he is still in the conversation as the worst top pick of all time. He came to the league off a big performance in the NCAA tournament, but never came close to fulfilling the potential the Blazers thought he had. But that was considered a bad draft overall and the franchise took him only because Bob McAdoo did not like what Portland was going to offer him (“I ain’t playing for no chump change,” he told The Oregon Journal.)

So now Portland trades down in the draft to choose Yang Hansen as the 16th choice in the first round when a whole lot of people are saying he didn’t belong that high.